Why the slow progress in power generation?

From the indicator of installed capacity of geothermal power generation, China has dropped from the eighth place in the world in the late 1970s to the 19th place at present.

China had high hopes for geothermal power. In 2013, the National Energy Administration's "Guiding Opinions on Promoting the Development and utilization of geothermal energy" proposed that the installed geothermal power generation capacity would reach 100 megawatts by 2015. In 2017, the "13th Five-Year Plan for Geothermal Energy Development and Utilization" of the National Development and Reform Commission proposed that the installed capacity of geothermal power generation would be increased by about 530 MW.

In 2021, the state will no longer mention specific targets for the development and utilization of geothermal resources. This year, the National Energy Administration "Several opinions on Promoting the development and utilization of geothermal energy", proposed "the construction of a number of geothermal power generation demonstration projects in areas with good resource conditions". Last year, the National Development and Reform Commission issued the "14th Five-Year Plan for renewable Energy Development" proposed: "orderly promote the development of geothermal power generation."

At the same time, wind power and photovoltaic power generation have shown rapid growth in the past two years. Last year, China's new installed capacity of wind power and photovoltaic power generation reached 125 million kilowatts, exceeding 100 million kilowatts for three consecutive years. The total installed capacity of wind power is 365 million kilowatts, and that of solar power is 393 million kilowatts.

Subsidies are key

Geothermal electricity price subsidy is not in place, which is the key to restrict its development.

At the press briefing of the "Media into China Geothermal" Dali activity held on July 27, He Jishan, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said that domestic geothermal power generation is in the cultivation stage and needs support from the state and the government, especially electricity price subsidies.

"There are some planned geothermal power projects in Yunnan, and once there is a reasonable electricity price subsidy, government guidance and enterprise participation, it will be able to scale up quickly and become an industry." He Jishan said.

Deng Zhuang introduced that the domestic geothermal electricity price subsidy is a station and a discussion, there is no national unified subsidy policy, the new geothermal power station can not get subsidies, and the loss of geothermal power stations has led to the construction of new geothermal power stations.

Wang Shanmin, president of the Tibet Geothermal Industry Association, has participated in the construction of Yangba Well and Yangyi Well in Tibet. According to him, the Yangbajing geothermal power generation project includes tax on-grid electricity price of 0.9 yuan/degree, and includes the national renewable energy electricity price additional allocation, the current economic benefits are good; Yangyi geothermal power station has not been subsidized electricity prices, grid settlement price of 0.25 yuan/degree, serious losses.

Experts at the conference generally said that the operating costs of geothermal power generation are very low, but the upfront investment costs are high. If geothermal power generation wants to be profitable, the on-grid subsidy price is recommended at 0.65-0.85 yuan/degree.

"In the early stage of geothermal power generation, it is necessary to adopt similar electricity price subsidies for wind power and photovoltaic. Costs are likely to come down when they scale up." Wang Shanmin believes that the installed scale of domestic geothermal power generation must reach at least 200 megawatts in order to achieve scale, and can be equal to the benchmark price of coal-fired thermal power and achieve parity Internet access.

Iceland is one of the representative countries for the large-scale use of geothermal power. According to Zhang Dawei, director of the Institute of Urban Underground Space and Energy of the Chinese University of Hong Kong (Shenzhen) and the Institute of Geothermal Energy Science and Technology (Dali), the current cost of geothermal power generation in Iceland is equivalent to about 0.2 yuan/degree.

Secondly, it is difficult to obtain mining rights license. Wang Shanmin introduced that the Yangyi power plant, which has been connected to the grid for power generation in 2018, has completed the disposal of mining rights, but has not obtained geothermal mining rights so far.

Geothermal mineral resource taxes and water resources fees have also made the difficult operation of geothermal power plants worse.

In 2020, the Resource Tax Law lists geothermal as an energy mineral, requiring a tax rate of 1%-20% of raw ore or 1-30 yuan per cubic meter. This means that a geothermal resource with an annual geothermal fluid circulation of 5.47 million cubic meters such as the Yangyi power plant needs to pay a resource tax of at least 5.47 million yuan.